At SDNeurosurgery (SDN) and South Bay Neurosurgery (SBNS), we work with all students of any year, although we strongly prefer students in their last year or last two years of school. This is because many schools will allow academic credits for upperclassmen only or will allow only a certain number of academic credits such that it would be best to use them with us in your last year or so. This will increase your odds of getting a paid full-time position with us. We are also looking for students who have matured and are more serious about medical school. Moreover, we also will consider students who are going to take gap years over those who will not. This is because we invest so much into training pre-medical and pre-PA students; we want opportunity to have these people come and work with us in our Practices. 

 

SDN/SBNS are neurosurgical practices specializing in the surgical care of the brain and spine. Our goal is to provide our Interns with real-life experience working in an active medical practice. We help our Interns who become Staff get into medical schools and physician assistant schools and start their own health-related careers. As an SDN/SBNS Intern, you will be expected to immerse yourself fully in the daily workings of the practice.

As an Intern you may work outside of normal working hours to meet the demands of a practice that is by its nature very fluid. This can involve considerable changes day-to-day with scheduling, meetings, and tasks. We will provide you with constant training, but you will be expected to perform and execute without supervision and be able to think well on your feet. If an unstructured environment without clearly defined roles and boundaries is difficult for you, then this Internship is not right for you. The Internship requires a tremendous amount of clerical work, demanding customer service, and possibly a lot of travel as there are multiple clinics in various locations.

At the end of your time with us, you will have acquired a breadth of experience, knowledge, confidence, and personal growth that will help you with your medical school application process. Our goal is to help you gain the confidence and expertise to do well in your interviews and personal statements and, ultimately, to get you accepted into a medical school. During your time with us, you will practice and master the 15 core competencies required of incoming medical students. For this reason, it is imperative that you dive deep into the practices so that you can be well-prepared for medical school.

Our Internship program goes beyond volunteering at a hospital or passively shadowing a physician. We will give you many responsibilities and have high expectations of you to do well, including showing up punctually and doing meticulous professional work. If you apply yourself, you will come to love working in the Internship. If you do not get to this point after 3 months or 6 months, and certainly by 9 months, you should not continue with the Internship or pursue a Staff position. You should not do an Internship if your goal is just to get a letter of recommendation. Letters of recommendation will be given to only a few, and if you do not join us as a Staff member, you will likely not get a letter of recommendation. You will be evaluated at different points in time, and we will continue or terminate your tenure based on your performance.

The workload for part-time Interns is at least 15 hours a week. For full-time Interns, it is 40 hours a week. We will assign you to a department where the Department Leads will supervise and train you. You must show up for work on time, attend all training, and complete all work assigned to you in a timely manner. You must be professional, respectful, responsible, and HIPAA compliant. You must not put the Practice in jeopardy in any way. We expect you to make mistakes, but we also want you to learn from them and strive to do better for yourself and the Practice.